Filling in the Blanks
by otherrealmwriter
Summary: Dr. Penelope Membrane disappeared 25 years ago when Dib and Gaz were still babies, but one day she wakes up in the park to a future she can hardly recogonize and to her now adult children not knowing who she is. What happened to her all those years ago? And why hasn't she aged? How will the Membrane family reunite? And what does the Irken Empire have to do with it?
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own Invader Zim okay? Well I was sitting around thinking after watching** **Close Encounters of the Third Kind** **about the line where one of the landing crew says, "They haven't aged a day" and an idea popped into my head, "You never see Dib and Gaz's mom, what if she was abducted and then dumped back on Earth 25 years later, how would a young woman and new mom take being dumped when her kids are adults in today's world. (Using the year 2016, 25 years earlier is 1991 and God knows 1991 seems like a different world than now...)** __ **You have future shock in there as well. Well that is the premise of this fic, so enough of this A/N, on with the fic!**

The young doctor scratched her head looking around. Last she knew she was on her way home from the hospital and was in the middle of the park when a bright light appeared around her and took her away from where she was standing. She had just come back on duty after the maternity leave wore out after the birth of her second child. She did not want to leave the kids at home to their father, knowing how inept he was with children at times, but then again, this was her first year of being a full blown doctor. This was one of the best hospitals in the city and she was determined to prove her own worth, not just ride her husband's name. After all, when you were married to the infamous Professor Membrane whose big discoveries were making changes that would bring the world into the 21st century like the visions promised in the pop culture of the day, one could easily imagine their De Lorans being made to fly in the sky and hover boards powered by moving your foot beside it by the time 2015 came around, people would talk and doubt your merits.

"Uggghhhhh..." The young woman with flowing purple hair said as she walked over to the park's water fountain. "Where am I?"

"You're in the park." A random voice said. "And you look like you need help. Bad. You sure you didn't take one or two bad Oxycotins or something?"

"Oxy what? I didn't think that was approved yet!" Last Dr. Penelope Membrane knew, that drug was still in the early development stage and only for people dying of cancer.

"Ummmmmmm... you been sheltered somewhere since 1998?" The voice asked as he walked up to her and looked at her clothes, "No, you look like you just appeared out of 1991. But so you know, there has been a opiate problem in this country for nearly 15 years now. You sure look like you have been part of that."

"No! Hell no!" Penelope said in shock. "Any way back to the hospital? I think I worked myself to exhaustion and just blacked out in the park. You see I just got off maternity leave early and I think I went back to work too soon."

"Ummmm..." The random person who found Penelope said looking around. He didn't believe this young woman's story one bit. She just seemed like a junkie who took clothes from the back of the retro consignment store that was now getting fashions from the early 90's in stock. But if nothing else, she looked like she needed help and the best place to do that would be the hospital. They could check her in and maybe call social services and get her young kids to the care of someone who wouldn't neglect them. God knows how kids could turn out if they were ignored their whole childhoods.

"How about you just wait with me here. I'll call an ambulance." The man said as he reached into his pocket.

"I got a quarter..." Penelope said. "But where's the pay phones? There were a ton over there by the bathrooms just yesterday! I walk this way to and from work every day! I swear there is pay phones all over the place. I called my husband's labs the other day from one to make sure my daughter wasn't too close to the Gameboy! She doesn't need to fall under the influence of video games!"

"Nah, I can call on my iphone..." The man said as he pulled out a phone and put in his passcode unlocking it and dialing 911 on the touch screen. This woman was delirious and seeming to think it was 1991. Either she took something bad while watching a movie from the 90's, things did not seem too good for her kids. That 'lab' of her husband's could have been a drug lab and they just hooked young children to video games to keep them quiet.

"What the hell..." Penelope asked as she looked at the iphone in the man's hand. "What is this?"

"A smart phone... they have had things like this since 2007, almost 10 years now." He said shocked. "Yes, 911? I found a woman in the park who is pretty confused and needs an ambulance to the hospital. She seems to think it is still 1991 and doesn't recognize an iphone...great... thanks." He pressed the end call button and looked at Penelope. "There should be an ambulance to take you to the hospital soon. They can figure out what is going on."

"I am not mental!" She said knowing what the hospital she worked at did to people who seemed crazy. It was sinking in that something had to have happened in the time she was blacked out. She looked down at her reflection. If the phone the man had mentioned had been out for nearly 10 years from 2007, that would mean that nearly 25 years had passed since she was last aware of the world. However, she did not look like a woman of nearly 50, she still looked like she was about 26 herself. Chronologically, she was born in 1965 and she was to be nearly 50 years old. But nothing felt like it should be 50. She still felt like she was in her mid twenties. Looking over her shoulder, she heard a siren of the ambulance and knew that she could not let herself be admitted to the mental hospital. If somehow had gone 25 years in the future, the time-line she was in now would know her as missing if not dead. Proving yourself alive was hard enough legally without explaining you didn't know where you were for 25 years. Quickly, she shoved the guy who called the ambulance to the ground and started to run towards her house. She knew the route well, she preferred to walk to and from work anyway. It helped her to lose the baby weight with her first child.

Meanwhile, back at the Membrane home, Dib lay on the couch watching old episodes of Mysterious Mysteries he had saved on his computer. He was waiting for a message from Tak for when she would come over, but she still hadn't sent it. He had just come home for the summer from college working on his master's degree. Never having given up on his paranormal ambition, and having freakish Meekrob powers bestowed in him he had managed to control, he was going to strive to make something that his own father would be made seem like the armature chasing dreams. To quell Professor Membrane's nagging, he majored in physics and biology in college with a small minor in military history upon Tak's suggestion that if he was ever going to beat the Irken Armada, he should at least know something about how to conduct battle. Dib had asked Tak to teach him, but it was tough enough on her to make their long (very long) distance relationship work while they were going to bring down the Irken Empire she did not want to be the one teaching him. It was hard enough just gathering the intel that they needed.

"Don't you have those dumb shows from 10 years ago memorized by now?" Gaz asked as she yanked Dib's headphones off his head.

"What's it to you?" Dib asked as he sat up. "You're pretty involved yourself with the paranormal." He scowled at the thought of his sister, the one he vowed to protect from harm since they were little, dating Zim.

"So are you." Gaz said, knowing full well he was meaning her relationship with Zim.

"Shove it." Dib said. "Tak is different than Zim."

"Whatever, I got to work on that project for the Gameslave company." Gaz said walking off to her room. She was heading for her master's in game design herself and had gotten an internship with Gameslave to make some of their games right after she got her degree.

"Go do that." Dib said as a ding was heard on his computer. "Finally Tak. I didn't think you were that many lightyears from Earth." He said to himself as a portal opened up in front of him that Tak stepped out of.

"Figured I would see you for a little bit. The Irken Armada is just hanging around Foodcourtia and refueling. That is when they actually have their guards up."

"Isn't it usually the other way around, at places like Foodcourtia the guard would be down?" Dib said as he looked over at Tak with a smile on his face heading over to her. "Where did you get that portal gun?"

"Fell off some Galactic Federation prisoner." Tak said placing it down on the table.

"Don't they have some sort of treaty with Irk?" Dib asked, making sure his intel was correct.

"Treaty of neutrality. As long as no Federation planet is Invaded, they won't attack Irk." Tak looked at Dib's face. "And no, don't try to get Earth in to prevent Irk from attacking. They know about Zim but not that he isn't an Invader to the Tallest. Cause more trouble than it's worth."

"What would I do without you?" Dib said as he pulled Tak closer.

"Lose horribly." She said as she pulled him close.

By this point, Penelope Membrane had made it back to her house, despite how much things had appeared different to her. The roads themselves did not change, so as long as she followed the street signs, she knew where she was going. Once she got to the door, she tried to open it, only to find the door locked. "What the hell is going on?!" She yelled as she turned the knob in frustration. "This door is never locked! I keep getting onto him to lock it!" She yelled referring to Professor Membrane. She placed her foot on her door and pulled.

Dib broke his kiss with Tak and looked up. Dib had a habit of keeping the door locked if for no other reason than to piss Zim off when he came to see Gaz. But that voice seemed vaguely familiar as if he had heard it in a very distant memory. "Put your disguise on, I don't know who that is." He said to Tak as she quickly put her disguise to look like a 26 year old young woman.

"Will you stop trying to rip the door down?" Dib said as he unlocked the door opening it. His face fell as he stared into the eyes of his mother. Those eyes were just like his own, only without the need for glasses. The hair fell down her back in the same color as Gaz's, only flowing. It was as if a distant memory from when he was a baby had come to life. "What the hell is going on?" He said as he walked backwards onto the couch. "You can't be... you died...years... ago..."

"Is that what your father told you?" Penelope groaned. "I can assure you I am not dead, but I have no idea what is going on, and that you would end up looking so much like your father, except for the eyes. Mine."

"This can't be happening..." Dib gasped as Tak looked on.

 **So how was that? I wanted the first chapter to have a cliffhanger but trust me the DATR and ZAGR won't be in there for shipping sake. And see if you can't find the Rick and Morty reference in there. I am sure you can, it isn't hid that well. But I don't have much to say here other than I listened to a lot of late 80's and early 90's music when writing Penelope. So remember to read (well you just did) and to review. Ciao for now,**

 **otherrealmwriter**

 **aka**

 **Realm**

 **PS Check out my other works as well. I know I should be working on them but when inspiration hits, you have to answer.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Since my name is not Jhonen Vazquez, I obviously do not own Invader Zim okay? I have a massive plot bunny bite and one part of the IZ fan-cannon I love to work with is the Membrane clan and their family dysfunction. Don't ask me why, I just do okay? But enough of this A/N, on with the fic!**

"What can't be happening, my now not so little Dibby boy?" Penelope asked as she looked up into her son's eyes. She was an average height of about 5 foot 9 inches tall, but Dib had grown to a tall and lanky 6 foot and 2 inches tall, and that was without the boots he liked to wear often.

"You!" Dib said. Sure he had encountered the paranormal on a daily basis, seen some freaky stuff with Zim and even did some freaky stuff with Tak but the fact his own mother who he knew to be dead came back looking like she never aged a day from his infantile memory, it was an emotional overload. He grew up his entire life with having no parents around and his own father putting in the amount of effort legally required not to be considered a neglectful parent. Tak was the most care he got out of a woman in his life and she was an Irken. "You died in 1991. I remember the funeral Dad took me and Gaz to! He said that your body was too beaten and shot up from a gang attack and that is why we couldn't look at you to say goodbye! That is my first complete memory!"

"So that is what your father said happened to me? I was a random victim of gang violence?" Penelope said shocked. Sure, she may have been a young doctor but she could defend herself pretty well when she needed to. Not to mention she saved the life of a few gang leaders in the ER who had then declared that she was not to be touched. "Well he should know better than that. I gave him a concussion when we first met. And he may have another one." She said with anger. "And at his age it won't be good. I may not have aged but I can bet you working like he does he did."

"Well...ummm..." Tak said trying to figure out what was going on as well. "What do you want me to call you as you can see I'm Dib's..."

"Wife." Penelope said looking from Tak to Dib and back again.

"WOAH!" Dib said blushing and looking away from Tak. Sure they had been together since Hi-Skool but that was still more commitment than he was ready for.

"Just girlfriend right now." Tak said keeping her cool.

"Don't worry his father was the same way when I said I wanted us to be serious. But no, Doctor Penelope. You don't go to school for nearly a decade not to be called 'Doctor'" Penelope said.

"Well Doctor Penelope," Tak said making use of her Invader and espionage skills. "You look to be the same age as Dib. You look more like his sister than anything. If you are his mother, then you would look much older, at least near 50. You must understand as a a medical professional the impact an event like this one would have on Dib's psyche. Considering what he had to go through as a child with everyone belittling him, including his own father and sister. I know you would not want to hear it but there were some close calls when he was a teenager." Tak knew full well the hell that Dib had to face growing up, she faced it there with him. Both being outcasts from their own worlds, they could sympathize.

"What happened while I was gone?" Penelope said looking at her grown son, in the middle of a break down.

"How do I summarize my entire life for someone who wasn't there at all?" Dib said. "I am not even sure you are who you say you are! I thought you dead! Everything I did I thought I was doing to honor your memory! Dad told me you were a prodigy who went through med school in a year! The youngest woman to be a doctor at the hospital."

"Okay, so he didn't lie to you about that." Penelope said.

"Maybe we should start with your last memory." Tak said. "And I will know if you are lying. I happen to be good at determining the truth from a lie." She added with a glance at Penelope. There was one thing she heard about during her travels in space and it may explain why Dib and his mother looked the same age.

"I was heading home from work for my mandatory rest shift. The hospital was trying to reduce malpractice lawsuits by making sure the doctors were well rested. I liked to walk and enjoy the city when in the park was a bright light. Next thing I knew, I was in the same park only apparently 25 years in the future." Penelope explained.

"You what?" Dib said his paranormal researcher instincts kicking in.

"I told you, One moment it is a summer day in 1991 and now I come to this year of 2016. Quite a disappointment actually" She said.

"All you saw was a bright light?" Dib asked sitting on the couch staring at his mother like every other person who came to him with a story of alien abduction. "and you look still like you did 25 years ago..."

"Okay Master of Physics, I think you know what is going on here." Tak said rolling her eyes.

"Never thought proof would be my own mother." Dib said.

"Proof of what? I may have a PhD and be a doctor but all I know is that I would have to have been in suspended animation to miss 25 years with no clue what was going on! Even coma patients can sometimes remember what happened while they were out in some cases!" Penelope said, her confusion coming back to the surface. The initial euphoria of seeing her son again was starting to fade.

"Wormholes." Dib said simply. "And that is as far as I could get Dad to agree with me. Sounds more like you were abducted by aliens and whatever they did to you took 25 Earth years to finish. There is a race out there where 10 of our years is like 1 of theirs." Dib said referring to Irkens. "I am going to have to do some tests to see what happened to you. There is always some sort of trace. This will tell me a few things. One, if you really are my mother. A simple DNA test can prove that. Two, what was done to you and by who. But as it looks, you were caught in some wormhole somehow and skipped 25 years."

"Fine." Penelope sighed. No way her word alone would convince him. "Whatever to convince you Dibby."

"MOM!" Dib yelled.

"What?" She asked innocently. "If you can recall, I always called you that."

"How about you two shut up down there?" Gaz said as she headed down the stairs in a rage. "I am trying to work on my game here!"

"Sorry Gaz, I am dealing with something here!" Dib yelled up the stairs.

"That's why I told you you need to wear a condom!" Gaz said, knowing full well how physical Dib and Tak had gotten at times. Penelope looked over at Dib with a typical motherly angered glare at finding out her son was sexually active despite his age.

"It's not that!" He yelled back, "and you wouldn't believe me even if I did tell you."

"Oh yeah?" Gaz said, "Try me, I have been dragged along with your paranormal adventures and have seen some freaky stuff. I still won't forgive you for that Pigmouth thing!"

"That was nearly 15 years ago!" Dib moaned, "And I cleaned that filthy toilet of filthy piggy filth with my head for your freedom!"

"Whatever." Gaz said knowing full well she had won the challenge anyway but wanted to make him suffer. "You tend to resent having to live off nothing but hot dogs. I haven't been to Deelicious Weenies since."

"Just leave me alone, I have bigger things to be dealing with here." Dib yelled as he turned back and sat down on the couch placing his face in his hands.

Gaz, fed up with the long distance conversation and her brother's non submissive attitude he had gained over the past few years, headed down the stairs to see what was going on. When she got there, she looked around and saw Tak and Dib but then looked over at Penelope. Being younger than Dib was at the time of Penelope's disappearance she did not have good memory of her at all. All she knew was the pictures of the fake funeral Professor Membrane set up. Gaz had taken it more with anger than Dib's sadness. She was left all alone with a crazy brother and a dad who just ignored her even though he seemed to pay just a little bit more attention to her than he did Dib. She walked over to Penelope and just stared at her in the face. They were about the same hight and had the same hair color, but Gaz's hair texture took more after her fathers and she had her father's eye color. The glare she cast was sending chills down Penelope's spine. This is what became of the infant daughter of hers?

"Ummm... Gazlene?" Penelope asked just before Gaz punched her in the gut.

"GAZ!" Dib yelled. "That might be our mother."

"I'm certain it is. Use your science to prove it all you want, but it is." Gaz said simply. "And I can never forgive that bitch for abandoning us and coming back contently when we are grown." She then walked into the kitchen looking at Penelope doubled over in pain.

"Uggghhhh... you can fight like me." She moaned with a slight smile.

"Shove it. No one calls me Gazlene. No one. Not Dib. Not Dad. No one." She said as she headed into the kitchen to get a soda.

Dib was shocked but could hardly be surprised, it was Gaz after all and she would have good reason to feel like she did but still. He got up and followed her to the fridge. "Look Gaz, she claims she blacked out and woke up in the park now. She doesn't look a day older than she did when she disappeared. She could have just been caught up in a wormhole and just came back."

"Keep telling yourself that idiot." Gaz said. "That may be the facts or the science or whatever but we had to grow up with essentially no parents because of her. I cannot forgive no matter what. And your explanation is hard to believe."

"Why?" Dib asked. "You do know what I went to school for?"

"Yes I do. I said, 'hard to believe' not impossible." Gaz said as she grabbed a can of soda and walked away. She pulled a strand of hair from her head and handed it to Dib. "You mentioned a DNA test right?" He nodded. "I hope it comes back she isn't my mother."

"What?" Dib said. "I thought you said she thought she was."

"Yes I did." Gaz said as she took a sip of the soda. "Doesn't mean I don't want her to be. She abandoned us. No matter how she did it, she did. I accepted her as dead and left her there. That's where my mother will always be in my heart. Dead." As she headed back towards her room to work on her assignment, she looked over at Penelope who was just getting back up. "Go to hell." She said as she slammed the door.

 **So how was that? Dib is at least exploring the idea but Gaz is very angry at Penelope. One can kind of see why but still. She doesn't forget nor does she forgive. How will this affect everything and what will happen when Professor Membrane finds out his wife isn't dead? Well that is for the later chapters, I can't tell you that here. So remember to read (well you just did) and to review. Ciao for now**

 **otherrealmwriter**

 **AKA**

 **Realm**


	3. Chapter 3

**I do not own Invader Zim okay? I am working hard on this story because I just have an idea that won't let go. Well the past two chapters had to do with Dib and Gaz but what was going on to Penelope in the years she was gone? And what happens on the few nights Professor Membrane comes home to see what is going on? You will have to read on and see. Enough of this A/N, on with the fic!**

"What did you do with experiment 9103?" An alien scientist said as the ship sped away from the planet.

"Dropped that human female off where we found her. She was quite the specimen." The lab assistant said as he entered the results into the computer. "She survived some of the zero gravity experiments and upon examination of her brain cells we had extracted proved she was of high intelligence with how close her neurons were wired. Her hair color was like one we had not seen in the homo sapiens species and we were wondering if it was a sign of evolution from the original modifications done on our last experiments on the dominant species on Earth."

"Good thing we found her before those two dolts who think they can fuse humans with masking tape." The other alien laughed. He was a lanky, mantis looking creature wearing a white lab coat with light blue eyes and stripes on his arms.

"They were never the same since they ate those inner-stellar lotus flowers." The other alien scientist, this one a grey humanoid looking with solid black eyes and an oval shaped head said. Even though this scientist was not of the same race as the mantis one, he was adopted into their culture and made one of the Mantoids scientists in charge of studying other races.

"And they flew through one too many quasars, their brains are fried." The other one said. "Report said that the female had given birth recently..."

"Upon examination of her reproductive organs, yes. That would have been her second offspring from the scaring and known other examples." The Grey alien read off.

"Good. This will provide good information for our efforts with the Empires of the universe." The Mantoid said.

Meanwhile, thousands of lightyears away back on Earth, Dib had helped Penelope onto the couch. Having been on the receiving end of Gaz's punches, he knew just what it felt like. You never got used to it. He could only imagine how she was feeling. If he felt bad every time it happened, it had to be worse for Penelope, being rejected by her own daughter. Assuming she was abducted and dumped through a wormhole, she had no control over the fact she lost out on all of her children's lives and could not stop the bad things from happening to them. He still had to be skeptical on her story, but this was the woman he had dreamed about looking over him, like a guardian figure.

"Dib, can we talk?" Tak said as she pulled him into the kitchen.

"I need to talk to you too." Dib said.

"But what about Penelope?" She asked looking over his shoulder.

"She needs to rest. Gaz punched her right in the abdomen. I don't know how that would hurt her and I would think she needs time to herself." Dib sighed as he sat in the chair by the kitchen table and looked out at his mother

"I think everyone is in general concensus that she is your mother, that is not the question, but if we do see that she was abducted, by who and why." Tak said.

"Did you hear anything about human test subjects?" Dib said. Suddenly, headlights flashed through the window and the sound of a car pulling into the driveway was heard. "That isn't Zim's car is it?" Tak shook her head no. Even though he could fly over to see Gaz any time he wanted to, Zim did like to drive and cause hassle in the Membrane household's driveway. Tak kept her ship in the garage and since it had been fixed up and could fly, she used it as a hanger. For some reason, Professor Membrane hardly used it as he hardly ever came home and when he did, it was so he could sleep long enough for the managers to be freed from liability of accidents at the lab due to sleep depravation. Lately Professor Membrane had a bad habit of coming home at the most inopportune times. Last time he had caught Dib and Tak wrapped in a movement of passion half-naked. However, he just brushed it off as part of young love and went to bed. However, this would not be something one could just brush off as easily. Dib and Tak moved to the doorway and stood on either side of it, waiting for the firebomb that could easily go off. Penelope saw what became of her children because her husband wasn't there and told them she was dead. He would get overwhelmed to see her again looking as young as she did while he aged horribly himself, wrinkles could be seen around his goggles even though he tried to hide it with the height of his collar of his lab coat and gray streaks were taking over the spiky black hair he used to have that had gotten bigger over the years as all Membrane hair did.

"Kids! I am home!" Professor Membrane said as he shut the door. "I am going to head up to the bathroom and then go to bed. Lawyers said I need to take a night off." He said as he looked at the couch and saw where Penelope was sleeping, trying to catch up to the future. It was like jet lag from Hell on steroids, this future shock. The last thing you would want after being punched in the gut by your daughter after she said she hates you would to confront your deadbeat husband. Professor Membrane headed toward the stairs. "You have a hard day with the Gameslave company daughter?"

"You don't see the difference do you?" Penelope said sitting up.

"Oh hell no..." Dib whispered looking on, trying to decide if he should step in or let his mother give his father what for.

"You changed your hair. How did you get it to flow like that? It's almost like..." he trailed off.

"...her mother's hair." Penelope said. "You starting to get Alzheimer's huh? That great brain of yours, oh so wonderful for scientific breakthroughs can't remember your wife!?"

"WHAT?! I THOUGHT YOU WERE DEAD!" Professor Membrane yelled. "Besides, you don't look like you should be 50!"

"Well my son says that I got abducted by aliens and trapped in a wormhole." Penelope said. "After he told me you told him and Gazlene-"

"Gaz" Professor Membrane corrected. "She hates her full name. That's how I got a concussion."

"WHATEVER! YOU STILL TOLD THEM I WAS DEAD!" Penelope said, growing madder and madder at her husband after seeing what became of her children. Sure, they were physically taken care of and had gotten great college educations, but there was more than just the physical side. They were emotionally damaged and scared from neglect. "Did you even report me missing? Did you even wait the 7 years to call me dead!? Or was it just easier for you to get someone to honor your name and call me dead!?"

"Well what else do you tell toddlers when their mother ran off?!" Professor Membrane said. They were having trouble with their marriage about the time that she went back to work after Gaz was born. It mainly came from her going back to work. He had hoped that a second child would make her more of a housewife. Money was no issue with the contracts he had made on his discoveries, it was mainly a matter of her pride. She was a new doctor but more importantly in his eyes, she was a new mother. He didn't want to have to adjust his schedule and way of doing things to look after the kids while she was at work. And as a doctor, her hours could get long. He was off making important discoveries and inventions. His work was better for mankind in his mind and it was Penelope's duty to raise the kids to take on and follow in his footsteps. "And you actually believe your son on that abduction thing?"

"Makes as much sense as you wanting to be the housewife despite how hard I worked! You don't keep a genius like me back when you don't want to take care of your creations!" Penelope yelled back. "Just because you never had anything you couldn't explain with orthodox science happen to you doesn't mean it doesn't happen!"

"There are rules to the universe and all science has to abide by it or it cancels itself out!" Professor Membrane said. "And right now your existence violates it all."

"Dad!" Dib said trying to break up the argument. _Maybe if Mom was around this would have happened more often..._ Dib thought. "You do know that if one were to travel at the speed of light, say to another planet then come back, they wouldn't have aged but life on Earth would have, right?"

"Yes son, but you told this woman she was abducted by aliens. Aliens don't exist. If she were abducted by aliens here, she'd have aged. She didn't." Professor Membrane, getting more and more fed up with his son's interest in the paranormal. He had hoped that college would have forced that out of him, but if nothing, it gave him more arguments to use for it.

"But wormholes are real and the physics prove it!" Dib yelled. "If you ignore the alien part, she got sucked into a wormhole and came back now!"

"Name me one time that happened." Professor Membrane said.

"You know what caused the Tunguska Blast?" Dib yelled, growing more and more furious at his father, the years of neglect and belittling of his ideas "The whole asteroid thing is labeled as highly improbable based off the damage found. Some claimed a wormhole collided with Earth. So who knows, maybe Mom walked into one and then came out now! We can't prove either way."

"So it didn't happen. Son, to be fair, you were young when she disappeared, so I wouldn't expect you to understand why she would want to leave in the first place." Professor Membrane said shoving Dib aside.

"You don't even call Dib by his name?" Penelope said. "You were the one who wanted to name him that in the first place!"

"Everybody shut the hell up!" Gaz said as she packed her work up in her bag. "I am going to Zim's. It's quieter there!" She said as she slammed the door and drove out.

"Come on Mom, let's head to the garage, I can do some tests there without Dad complaining about using his equipment, which the lawyers say you shouldn't do! They want you to have a home life!" Dib said even though Tak was motioning not to.

"Dib, what if she finds the ship?" Tak whispered, "That would be awkward to explain."

"Tell her no more than she needs to know." Dib said. "We can use its computer to run some tests and if she asks who built it, we can say you did. I have it still set to English rather than Irken so that shouldn't raise any questions. There is no reason to tell her you're Irken. Just keep the disguise on."

Penelope had already walked into the garage when she was looking at Tak's ship, much to Tak's predictions. "Who built this?" She asked.

"I did." Tak said. _Say nothing more than she needs to know._

"Funny because I have seen something like this before. Where I don't know and couldn't tell you why I remember it, but it's like a distant background memory but not too distant." Penelope said running her hand on the ship. "It's a marvel that I don't think _Professor Membrane_ could come up with..." Saying her husband's name with disdain. After seeing how he reacted sealed her feelings for the man. Her kids were the only members of the Membrane family she cared about now.

"Well that man you married is an idiot." Tak said. "Your son here helped me to rebuild it after it crashed."

"Great work Dibby," Penelope said, "But I cannot shake the feeling like something like this is connected to my disappearance..."

 **So how was that? Good? Bad? Drama? Angry Mom? Let me know in a review! Something is going to go down and not only with the Membrane family but something with the Irkens. Tak's ship trigged a memory that was repressed or at least is trying to and what questions will that lead to? You will just have to read more to find out. Besides, this past week has been crazy. If you don't know why then you have been living under a rock. But hey, with Trump's election and Hillary not rigging it from the get to win, that proves anything is still possible. I know many people who didn't want her to win but thought she had it bought out. (But that will give me ideas for Minutes to Midnight and Taboo and my MLP Out of Exile fic...) But politics aside, as this is not what you are here for, remember to read (well you just did) and review! Ciao for now**

 **otherrealmwriter**

 **aka**

 **Realm**


	4. Chapter 4

**I do not own Invader Zim okay? If you read the A/Ns of the previous chapters then you know I love to mess with the dysfunctionality of the Membrane family and what happened to Dib's mom. It's just a favorite muse of mine in this fandom. But I am sure you don't want this, you want the story, so enough of this A/N, on with the fic!**

Gaz pulled up to Zim's house in a rage. So what if that was her mother. So what if the reason she was never there was some weird anomaly or she was abducted like Dib thought. That just meant that her mother was lightyears from her during her childhood and was never there. There was no one to protect her, no one to tell her how growing up was. No figure to lead the way for her. Dib tried to be that but he failed miserably in her mind. As soon as some paranormal phenomenon came by, that was it. Not to mention her father showed up every so often and family night was an annual event as to most normal families' weekly event. Gaz had pretty much raised herself and got herself through her childhood. That was the only person that she could count on. She arrived at Zim's house, opened the door to her car and stormed into his hideout.

"Wow." Zim said as he looked over from the television at the only human he cared to spare. "You usually knock first. And when you don't, you don't break the windows at the same time." Zim pointed to the shattered windows that began to fix themselves. After Dib kept throwing brick through the window when Gaz started dating him, Zim made the program update so he wouldn't have to keep replacing broken glass.

"Oh." Gaz said nonchalantly as she headed into the kitchen and set her briefcase and laptop with her work on the kitchen table. As she did, GIR walked up to the table and placed some waffles down. "So, waffles again?"

"Yep! I likes making them for you Gaz!" GIR said as he headed back to the stove to make more. "There will be plenty for you to work to!"

"I don't want any." Gaz said simply as she opened up the suitcase and got back to work on her game design. The company needed a female villain concept and part of her wanted to just work her mother into it but then she remembered they did not want her to put something in that would look too much like her, and about the only thing that distinguished her from Penelope was the fact she had her father's hair texture and his eyes. There were other features that stuck out just enough that she was not a clone but could only be told if someone looked close enough. Her own father mistaking Penelope for her was enough to tell her that.

"What's wrong with you Gaz?" Zim said as he sat down across from her staring at her as she was consumed more and more by her work. "You usually do not come into my house so filled with rage. Did that Dib-stink do something again?"

"No, my mother did." Gaz said simply. "And Dib is stupid enough to take her back."

"I thought you said your mother was dead." Zim asked as one of his antenna perked up in intrigue.

"Well I thought so too." Gaz said. "Guess not."

"Huh?" Zim asked confused.

"I swear, Tak picked up on it faster than you, but whatever," Gaz sighed. "She showed up at the door acting like it was 25 years ago and trying to be all motherly and shit."

"Ugggghhhhhh..." Zim moaned at the mention of Tak. Not only was he fed up with her stalking him wherever he went, the Irken pride in him could not figure out why she would allow fraternization with a member of a lesser species. Especially humans like Dib. Even though despite this, he was doing the same thing himself with Dib's own family, he considered himself both above traditional Irken ways and Gaz a superior member of the human race.

"So? You never walked in on those two..." Gaz shuddered. "But, back to what I was saying, Dib and Tak are all trying to figure out what the hell happened as Dib thinks Penelope was just a victim of alien abduction and wormholes."

"Penelope?" Zim asked as GIR put a plate of waffles in front of him.

"My mother. I am not honoring that woman by calling her that." Gaz said. She looked back down at her work and focused on the latest improvements that Gamslave had wanted for the Yell of Missions newest release. Gaz studied some of the data she had on previous weapons and the plot of the newest release, set about 25 years in the future from the release date. The commission called for some 'Futuristic pulse weapon' and Gaz was simply stuck. She wanted to do this on her own. She could easily look at some of her father's work and come up with a design, but her pride would not allow her to sink so low as to ask her father for help when she was supposed to be a grown woman working for a company on her own merit. Zim looked over and sighed.

"You know, I have something you could use for that design that exists already. I can tell you how it works like the back of my hand." Zim smiled. "I hate seeing my Gaz struggle on her work. Especially when she is so much more worthy than the rest of humanity."

Gaz paused. Sure she wanted to do this all herself but creator's block was standing in her way, and she wanted to impress Gameslave. _It can't hurt to take help from Zim, he is my lover and this stuff already exists anyway, even if humanity doesn't know it. Not to mention when the game is released and the functionality is proven to work I can say Zim and I came up with it and put Dad in his place. God knows he needs a little humility._ "Sure Zim," Gaz said finally closing her case and taking a bite of the waffles GIR had placed in front of her. "So, GIR finally learned soap is not an ingredient..."

"Finally." Zim said, a little bit of vomit from the numerous toxic waffles he had eaten over the years coming up in his mouth. "I'll bring you up one of the laser pistols of mine. I'll tell you how it works for when you want to get back to work. But take a break, you are going to need it." Zim said seeing how Gaz was unraveling.

"Thanks." Gaz said as she took a bite of the waffles and watched GIR make more than would ever be eaten at one meal.

Zim flushed himself down the toilet in the kitchen to his base, looking for a laser pistol to show Gaz and use for her game design. Sure she may have to change the color scheme, which would be a shame in Zim's mind. He was proud of the Irken red color scheme and would find it funny that the humans would have an Irken weapon in their game, but there would also be the fact that the Armada could come at any time and there would be a few humans who would see the gun as one from the game Gaz had to work on and think that it worked the same way and find weaknesses based on that. And while Dib and Tak did not play video games too much, and Gaz certainly did not like them picking apart her work. They would notice the similarity eventually as Dib and Tak often went to the mall for their dates if for no other reason to sit in the bookstore, drinking coffee, which Dib had developed an affinity for in college and during late night paranormal investigations and Tak's system could handle. It seemed any human drink with caffeine in it could be handled by an Irken's biology despite the water. Zim had just arrived at the storage room, looking for a laser pistol that worked so Gaz could study its operation and one that was broken that she could look at the inner workings for without Zim having to worry about it. As he rummaged through the refuse, a loud sound was heard over the intercom.

"INCOMING TRANSMISSION!" Zim's computer said. "From the Tallest, for the first time in a long time."

"Huh?" Zim asked as he turned to his computer.

"Zim! You there?" Tallest Red yelled.

"You expect him to be waiting by the communicator?" Tallest Purple asked.

"Well he used to call us nonstop saying 'My Tallest' for THREE HOURS" Tallest Red commented. "I think he would still be there even though we haven't called in a very long time." In fact that very long time had been nearly five years. One day the Tallest had told Zim that they would call him and he was not to call back till they called and if he did, they would have Zim deactivated. At this time, he began to get more involved with Gaz and their own personal vendetta against Dib and Tak, so his "mission" was put on hold in his mind.

"I'm here my Tallest!" Zim said running out of the storage room holding the laser pistols. "You finally called back." Zim had never really given up hope on the Invasion and the arrival of the Armada but he was waiting for further orders from the Tallest to progress further. He had sent all of the information he had found on Earth to them after all.

"What are you doing with those laser pistols...?" Tallest Purple asked.

"Ummmm... cleaning up my storage room." Zim said placing them down. He was not about to tell the Tallest he was dating a member of the human race, no matter how superior he saw Gaz to other humans, nor was he about to tell them he was letting her put their weapons into a human video game. "So you guys called back huh?"

"Yeah, we needed you to analyze this information we got from a few roaming medical examiners when they abducted some humans." Tallest Red said. "They said they captured a human and studied her."

 _Her?_ Zim thought, _Do not tell me that Dib-stink was right and this human was Penelope..._ "So what do you want me to do exactly?"

"Just read their report and do some tests of your own on a few other humans. What they said humans could stand was quite amazing and if they are as sturdy as these guys said we will be heading on over to Earth. We need a good package shipping hub on that corner of the galaxy. If not and they sold us a bunch of dookie, then we will be wanting our Monies back, because they asked a Tallest's ransom for it." Tallest Red said.

"What made you so interested in Earth?" Zim asked. "Sounds like you paid a lot of Monies..."

"We did. So much we had to blast one of our donut guys into space, couldn't afford to pay him this month." Tallest Purple said. "But Operation Impending Doom II is going so well, and the part of the galaxy Earth is in doesn't have enough of an Irken presence in it. So we figured we would buy this information. You know how the Mantians and the Greys are, examining and selling information."

"I thought those Mantians were idiots..." Zim said recalling how they tried to fuse a gopher to him with duct tape.

"No, those were ones that ate too many interstellar lotuses and went through too many quasars. They were idiot outcasts." Tallest Red said. "But down to business, verify their findings and tell us if humans are as useful to us as they said they could be. You could be the key to expanding the Empire to all corners of the galaxy." With this, Red cut the transmission and sent a message to Zim containing the information on humans that the Tallest had paid for. Zim picked it up and started to read the basic information.

"Human female, aged 25 Earth years upon capture... Hair... purplish mauve... indications of two offspring born about one Earth year apart..." Zim read aloud. "Gaz isn't going to like this." Zim said knowing that despite what he wanted to admit, Dib was right about their mother being abducted. He leafed through the report seeing many features Gaz had being mentioned but the final thing that got him was a picture that was used to identify her next to a mapping of her DNA. The DNA map was a lot like Gaz's and the picture looked just like her, only with difference in hair texture. "So, Gaz, your mother may have invited the Armada to Earth after all." Zim sighed as he headed back up the toilet with the guns and the information.

 **So how was that? Good? Bad? Interesting? Boring? Let me know in a review. I hope you like this because if the Irkens do decide based off the information of humans, then things will get really interesting, where will loyalties lie? How will everybody react? You will just have to keep following to find out. I don't have much else to say here, I do have time off before work starts again and I hope to post more stories, so keep an eye out. So remember to read (well you just did) and to review. Ciao for now,**

 **otherrealmwriter**

 **aka**

 **Realm**


	5. Chapter 5

**I do not own Invader Zim okay? I am here waiting for laundry to dry at least as I type this A/N, so I am going to work on some of my works here. Other than that I don't have much to say here, so enough of this A/N, on with the fic!**

Penelope sat in a rusty stool that had been in the garage since she could remember being in the Membrane household. _I know I had come out of a wormhole from an alien abduction, but why does this stool seem as rusty and creaky as it did when we first moved in? I think it came with the house._ Penelope thought as she looked at the cement floor. Dib was typing some things into his laptop that he had hooked up to Tak's ship. Tak was looking over her ship to make sure everything was okay. Penelope looked back and forth between the two, just wondering what happened in the past 25 years. _I guess everyone could have been worse, I have read reports before I was abducted about kids who pretty much lost both parents turning criminal, and that is why Gazlene was so mad, I can understand. Doesn't mean I will forgive their father for doing what he did. If he wanted to worry more about his scientific discoveries than his own kids, we could have simply just not had any. He knew I was dedicated to being a doctor._

"Tak, where's the old EEG from Dad's labs I moved in here?" Dib said.

"Beside the refrigerator." Tak sighed. "I'll get it." She walked over to the fridge and pulled out a machine with electrodes and walked it over. What did your dad use this thing for anyway? I thought medicine wasn't his thing."

"I think I know, it was from that sentient vegetable idea he had. He came up with it after we first met and like I said, I gave him that concussion." Penelope said.

"So, you do still have memories prior to the event?" Dib said as he typed notes onto his laptop.

"What?" Penelope asked noting how she could see Professor Membrane's dedication to his work in Dib.

"What was the last thing you remembered before you were abducted, at least according to your claim?" Dib said. "Don't worry, I am this way with everyone I met who has an abduction claim."

"You mean I am not the only one?" Penelope asked as Tak placed the electrodes of the EEG on Penelope's head.

"You would think you are but trust me, since Dib and I have been doing this we have seen quite a few claims. Many are complete bunk." Tak said. "Some are just fucked up."

"Tak!" Dib said looking over at her. He was always getting onto Tak for swearing at the people who were coming to him with their encounters. "Language."

"Soooorrry..." Tak moaned. "He is quite professional, and it seems has your medical professionalism. Have to wonder where he learned that because it certainly wasn't from his father." She knew that she had to make Penelope feel a little better after what had happened. Let her know that even though she was millions of light years away, she did have an impact on her children.

"Well, that is good to know, knowing how he could have turned out with how Membrane ignored him all those years..." Penelope said. "I still can't believe he would do such a thing."

Tak rolled her eyes at Penelope. Having been with Dib since Hi-Skool, Tak had seen it all. Professor Membrane didn't even show up Dib's graduation in person, just sent one of his floating tele-screens to see it and record it to watch it later. Same for when Dib graduated college, even though the dean of the school wanted Professor Membrane to speak to the graduating class, he said he was too busy. Tak found that rather funny because in all the times she had contact with him, she never knew Professor Membrane to not be proud of his fame and accomplishments.

"Well, okay then. Mom, what did you do that day you believe you were abducted?" Dib asked as he started recording what she was going to say.

"I bet your father hates that you are still onto the paranormal." Penelope said. "Even as a baby you showed signs of it."

"He does. But if we are going to figure out what happened to you, we need to go over your last known day on this planet." Dib said.

"Fine." Penelope said as she ran her fingers through her hair. "I had just gotten off a double shift that day. Like I said, I was just hired on as an ER doctor at the hospital and I wanted to prove my worth. I was a new doctor, young and married to your father. Some people thought I would just ride his name."

"Isn't Dad not that much older than you?" Dib asked.

"Only by about 5 years, but still, by the time I took my Hippocratic oath, he was already pretty influential and making scientific history." Penelope explained. "But back to what I was saying, I had just pulled a double shift after getting off maternity leave after Gazlene was born," Dib looked up, still not used to hearing his sister's full name being said. Their mother was not going to take Gaz punching her in the stomach as the final say-so on that matter. "The management made me leave because their policy was a tired doctor is a deadly doctor and I checked out and walked home." 

"Walked? Most people drive to and from their jobs." Tak noted.

"Well I never really liked to." And at this, Tak looked over at Dib knowing his aversion to driving and flying if he didn't have to. "and I enjoyed walking through the park and I didn't worry too much about the muggers and anyone attacking me at night, I can fight back. The low lives of the night never bothered me. About mid way through the park, a flash overtook me and I felt like I was floating off the ground. From there, it gets sketchy. I mean I recall floating around in a chamber while everything else was on the floor of wherever I was and being examined by some... things... I mean I can't make out what they look like right now. Maybe like big bugs. Lanky. Almost mantis like. And one looked like what you imagine when you say alien. You know, grey skin, big eyes..." Penelope said. She then looked back to the kitchen and remembered the fight with Professor Membrane. "Don't tell your father..."

"Mom, do you think I would tell Dad this after the shit he told me the past 25 years? Seriously, Most of the stuff I have done to help humanity, I have done on my own." Dib said looking at Tak thinking of the plans of Zim's they had thwarted over the years and smiled.

"Good, because I am sure he is now looking for a way to lock me away in some asylum after what I said to him." Penelope said.

"Trust me, I know what that is like." Dib said, recalling when his father wouldn't help him fix what he did with the interdementional scope.

Meanwhile Zim headed up the tube to arrive through the toilet into his home to find Gaz working on a few sketches that were crossed out and thrown across the floor. _I am not going to tell her everything the Tallest told me. She's pissed enough as it is. But she does want to help me to destroy humanity if I ever got the chance..._ Zim thought as he placed the lazer guns on the table in front of her.

"What is this?" Gaz asked scowling at Zim.

"Relief." Zim smiled evilly at Gaz.

"Thanks. I sure need it." Gaz said.

"Wow. You must be under a lot of stress little Gaz." Zim remarked. "You are normally not grateful for anything."

"Yeah but apparently a member of an alien race who wants to destroy humanity cares more than my entire family. That does cause creator's block when something like that happens." Gaz said as she started to note the feel and dimensions of the Irken's laser guns in her hand. She placed it down and wrote some notes.

"You know, I never thought this much went into game design. Most of the ones GIR brought home were rather old ones he found saying the people at the club loved those." Zim said looking over at how hard Gaz was making observations.

"Well that was a long time ago in the gaming industry." Gaz said. "Back 25 years ago there wasn't much you could do with the technology at the time. You had to keep it simple. Your computers could only do so much. But now that you can put more detail and realism into your graphics, they need to be made more...plausible." Gaz noted looking up at Zim. "Unless your game premise is completely implausible to begin with. Then you can toss everything to the wind and do whatever the hell you want. But for what I am assigned, even though the story is in the future, it has to be a plausible future. That's why I stole a copy of my dad's planned inventions and worked from there. So he can get criticism for getting ideas from a video game. That I worked on."

"How did you get your father's plans anyway?" Zim asked noting in his mind just how evil and devious Gaz could be if she wanted to.

"That man's computer password is too easy. I don't know how many times he has been told about making it that simple." Gaz said.

"What? Is he one of those idiots who use 'password'?" Zim asked remembering how in Skool they were told to never use that one as it was too easy to guess.

"Well, he isn't that stupid, but he is just too proud of his Supertoast. That's his password." Gaz said. It was just one email to me and BOOM! I have his data." Gaz smirked.

Zim smiled. This was what he loved about Gaz. She was the perfect evil assistant and could come up with plans he found more evil than he could even dream of. And no doubt they would be effective too. The Tallest wanted more information on humans after buying that report the aliens who abducted her mother sold them. If they produced the same or more valuable data, the Armada would come and then be able to Invade. Earth would be theirs. Zim was certainly not going to tell Gaz the whole truth at this point. She hated her mother too much to even mention around her. But she was brilliant and evil if she wanted to be and if she had revenge to get. She hated humanity for what happened growing up. Zim looked at his hands, then to Gaz, took a breath and started his proposal. "You know, I got a call from the Tallest while I was down there."

Gaz looked up, "They haven't called in a long time."

"No. But said they wanted to expand their reach to this part of the galaxy now." Zim said.

"And?" Gaz asked.

"You're not concerned by that alone?" Zim queried just to gage Gaz's response.

"No. They couldn't do much worse than what mankind has done to itself already." Gaz said simply as she opened up her design program on her computer. "As long as you don't betray me to them, we'll be fine." Gaz said narrowing her eyes at Zim. "Or use me to get to Dib."

"What? You care about your brother?" Zim teased as Gaz punched him in the face.

"Not really. But I am not going to betray him like that. That's just low. You guys wanna battle like nitwits, fine. Just don't expect me to help you out. I am not going to help you two on that one." Gaz said.

"Well the Tallest asked for a report on the human life forms and to see if any of the rumors they heard about humans were true. I mean your brother isn't totally off the mark when it comes to humans being abducted." Zim said. "Some species do it for fun."

"And?" Gaz said.

"Well, you were worried about how realistic and plausible seeming your project would seem right?" Zim asked.

"Yes." Gaz scowled. "And this has to do with the Tallest's question how?"

"Well, I was thinking we could get a few 'volunteers' to test it and while they do, I can do the tests the Tallest want done." Zim smiled.

Gaz looked at Zim. This was her creation and he was going to use the testing phase to gather information to send to the Tallest. They were thinking of conquering the planet. Yet, she was okay with this idea. She didn't care for humanity. It didn't care for her. So why should she care about it? They took so much for granted and thought if they lost all they thought was important by an outside force they didn't even want to admit existed, so be it. Gaz simply blinked and looked at Zim. "Fine. Use it to get your tests done."

"Thank you so much my little Gaz." Zim said as he kissed Gaz on the cheek and ran off to his labs to prepare the tests he would do on the humans based off the information that the Tallest had given him. _I don't know how well she would have taken it if she knew the Tallest had information on her mother. Well she won't need to know unless it comes up._

"Do me a favor for doing this for you" Gaz said simply.

"Anything my little Gaz." Zim said bowing.

"Stop calling me 'little'." Gaz said.

"You know I can't do that my darling." Zim said as he pulled her face close and kissed her deeply.

"I guess. Just thought I would ask." Gaz said turning back to her work.

 **So how was that? Good? Bad? Boring? Plotting? Let me know in a review. I know I should have updated sooner but whatever, life comes and so does the inspiration. But hey this does have to build up before some action begins. So remember to read (well you just did) and to review! Ciao for now**

 **otherrealmwriter**

 **aka**

 **Realm**


	6. Chapter 6

**I don't own Invader Zim okay? I know I haven't updated this in a long time but hey, there isn't enough fics I can find in the fandom dealing with the Membrane family. So what is an author to do? Write what she wants to see! So enough of this A/N, on with the fic!**

Dib stared at his notes while Penelope looked at the clock on the wall. It was getting to be the wee hours of the morning and he was still working on her case. Tak seemed to read her mind and elbowed Dib in the side and motioned to Penelope. "Oh," he said looking up.

"You didn't forget about me did you?" Penelope asked.

"No, I just..." Dib blushed

"Get absorbed in your work." Tak said rolling her eyes. "It's getting late."

"Mom, just go up to my room, you can sleep there. Don't kill Dad." Dib said.

"Why not?" Penelope growled. "After seeing how he left you kids, and that I am legally dead in this time, would be nice."

"We all dreamed of that in this house, but it isn't worth it." Tak said. "Yes, that man is a loser but still. I think the unhealthy diet of fast food and takeout he's been living on for the past few years will do that for you." Penelope rolled her eyes. She was a doctor after all, and to hear her husband in addition to neglecting the kids was neglecting his health as well just annoyed her.

"I guess you are right Tak," Penelope sighed as she headed up to Dib's room. It had been where she had set it when she first moved into the house all those years ago. The last time she had remembered entering this room, there was a small dresser , toy box and bookshelf with a small toddler bed, placed up on a few blocks so that Dib could stare out the window at the night sky. If there was one thing that came back to her mind quickly, it was the memory of Dib's habit of staring at the night sky before he simply couldn't anymore and fell asleep. Obviously, Dib was now too big for that toddler bed nor would the toy box be in the room anymore, but Penelope walked into her son's room and looked around. Many of the things had changed, and like many college aged men, clothes were all over the floor, something she found as she tripped over a boot and fell face first onto his bed. Penelope looked up to find a few things hadn't changed. One: The height of the bed and the fact it was still right beside the window, only now there were post it notes about his latest theories, things Tak had told him and various other paranormal notes. She lay back in the bed and looked over at the desk in the corner. It was a picture of her when she had graduated medical school and gotten her job at the hospital just before he was born. _He dug through his father's storage and found this. I am certain once I 'died' he just put every part of me away thinking that would make it easier on Dib and Gazlene. Some genius you are..._ Penelope thought with a scowl toward what used to be her bedroom as well as Professor Membrane's. She then turned the picture and read the handwriting on the back.

"'Sometimes I get the feeling like she's watching over me. And though you're dead and gone, believe me your memory will carry on'." She read aloud as she feel back on the bed with a tear. "So, when I disappeared, did you think I was out there in the stars? Guess you may have been onto something. Despite what your father thinks, I am pretty certain that I was abducted." She smiled to herself as she collapsed onto the bed and fell asleep.

Tak looked over at Dib, who was finishing up some notes on his laptop. She was certain that he was burying his confusion at how to accept the situation into his work. It was now pushing 3 in the morning and he hardly ever stayed up this late in the evening. He had seen various forms of paranormal phenomenon over the years, but yet none of them had consumed him like this had. It was his own mother after all. "Maybe you should turn in for the night. I can finish some of this in here." Tak said.

"I haven't finished reviewing this EEG yet..." He said as he lifted his glasses and rubbed his eyes.

"I can do that. But I am thinking it's going to prove nothing is wrong with your mother." Tak said.

"But who abducted her?" Dib said as he took off his glasses. "Why would they abduct her? Out of the billions of people on the planet, my own mother!"

"I don't think they were trying to get to you. You were only two years old at the time." Tak said. "It's quite possible they were trying to study humans. What for, there's many reasons out there. But you won't solve why if you don't get some rest and she won't be able to tell you until she feels better. You guys are humans and can't go for days without sleep like I can." She closed the laptop and pulled Dib away from the chair. "Go to bed." She said kissing him on the lips, knowing the power her affection had over him.

"I guess you're right." Dib sighed. "But I gave my mom my room."

"The couch you dolt." Tak said rolling her eyes.

"Yeah... guess I am tired." He sighed as he headed into the living room and lay down on the couch, putting his left leg over the back and taking off his glasses.

Once Tak was satisfied that Dib wouldn't try to interfere with the work she was trying to do, she headed up to his room to check on Penelope. _What you don't know Dib, is that I put an additional electrode on. I wanted to see if I could capture any memories she might have had._ She opened the door slightly to see if she was asleep. Penelope stirred slightly, causing Tak to pause as she just turned in her sleep. "Whooh..." Tak said to herself as she moved closer and shifted through Penelope's long flowing purplish mauve hair. _I see what may have drawn her to Dib's dad, they have the weird EST hair I have seen in humans. This color isn't normal in the human genome and Dib's hair defys gravity like his father's._ Tak thought as she found the electrode on Penelope's scalp. "There it is!" Tak said a little too loud, to find Penelope's hand on her neck.

"What the hell are you doing?" Penelope said as she held up Tak looking at her in an intense rage.

"I see where Gaz gets it..." Tak gasped.

"Tak!" Penelope gasped as she placed Tak on the ground. "I'm sorry, you woke me up. I have been told I am much stronger than I look. I mentioned giving Dib's father a concussion when we first met but that isn't the only time something like that has happened with me and I handled bullies much better than they thought I could when it comes to fighting back. From what I could feel when Gazlene punched me, she got it from me. So what brings you to my sleeping form?"

"I didn't tell Dib about this but I placed an additional electrode on your head when he ran the EEG." Tak said. _I am not going to tell her everything, just the basics._ "It's of my own design to try and capture a person's memory wavelengths and project them onto a screen so I can see what may have happened to you. Maybe prove Dib right?" She smiled so that hopefully Penelope wouldn't take it as too much of a sneaky move or personal violation. Hopefully her maternal side and growing disdain for her husband would have her overlook the fact.

"You didn't tell Dib about it?" She asked Tak.

"I plan to in the morning." Tak said rubbing her neck. Even though Irkens could handle being strangled better than humans could, it still caused a bit of pain. "But he needs his rest. I got up late this morning so I am going to do a little more work than him." Tak knew better than to tell anyone she was an Irken that didn't already know. Zim and Gaz knew and they were the only ones because for them to use it against Dib would mean Tak would do the same to Zim.

Penelope looked at Tak's concern for Dib and his dream, to the picture Dib had kept and looked towards the moon. It was full and could be seen pretty clearly through the window. "I don't know how to feel. My son's got a good girlfriend to look after him and got a good education but what he went through when I wasn't here..." She placed her face in her hands and began to cry. "And with Gazlene, she hates me because I was never there and I don't blame her. I blame myself!"

"Look, you were abducted and taken lightyears from here. I know Dib would yell at me for giving you that before things could be proven exactly but just call it women's intuition." Tak said. "And I came up with something to help him prove that. But you didn't leave on your own and there was nothing you could really do to prevent it. Even if you drove home instead of walked that night. No point wondering the what ifs."

"You... you're right." Penelope said as she laid back down. "I guess I got what every woman my age wants, to look like they are 25 when they're in their fifties..."

"That's the spirit. Now sleep. You need to catch up a quarter century and people say jet lag's bad." Tak said as she headed back to the garage and plugged her electrode into the computer on her ship. Dib's laptop had a lot of processing power, but not the level she would need to retrieve and decode a person's memory. She wasn't even too sure it would work. But they would read the theta brain waves and take the information and try to read what the brain was thinking. Irken technology was far advanced in comparison to humans and could put a personalty into a computer's AI. As Tak's ship analyzed the recording, she found the theta waves where broken up, but there were impressions left by delta and alpha waves, a lot like in sleep.

"So these aren't taken as a real memory but a dream, mixed in with her memories." Tak said as she took the alpha and delta waves and began to decrypt them an image of a familiar species to her appeared on the screen. "The Tallest?" Tak yelled. "Dealing with Mantians and Greys? What could they want? Zim's mission was a farce!"

Tak got up and began to pace around her ship. Mantians and Greys were both known for abducting other races in the universe and studying them, but they never dealt much with Irkens or the Tallest. The Tallest never thought their planets worthy of Invasion and they normally just had the Invaders provide information about the people of the planets they intended to conquer. And the planets selected were often allies or enemies. They never wasted time with neutral planets in case of an uprising on a planet they were trying to Invade so the natives could not call neutral planets up to their side. And Tak had been traveling around the universe a lot and knew that the galaxy knew Zim's mission was a joke. Nobody wanted much to do with Earth to begin with, they saw it as a planet of wild and untamed and idiotic creatures. Some races liked to study them, as with the Mantians and the Greys, but none wanted it. The Tallest didn't want it when they sent Zim to there. So this dreamlike memory was concerning to Tak. "This is something big." Tak said to herself as she stared at the projection on the screen. "What I don't know, but the Tallest don't do dealings like this unless there's something in it for them..."

 **So how was that? Penelope kind of likes Tak for looking after Dib, and some interesting things are on the horizon. So many things getting linked together in a little web of foreshadowing that complicates things. So now with family drama adding on, there may be an Invasion on the doorstep. I did a little bit of research for what the electrode Tak had would pull up but don't you dare quote me for a report on neurology. How everything works is not backed up fully. But if you are thick enough to use a fanfiction as a source for a school paper, well that F is well deserved. Well remember to read (well you just did) and to review. Ciao for now,**

 **otherrealmwriter**

 **aka**

 **Realm**


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